It's faint praise to say that Skyrim is fantastic so far, but I have a question regarding how I'd like to play my character versus game mechanics. I'm playing a mage primarily motivated by personal power and the allure of the forbidden. He's content to wander around Skyrim and inhabit various inns and the sometimes the Winterhold college so far, but I'd like to establish not just a house but a stronghold. Is there anyway I could have him inhabit a cleared dungeon, or do those places reset their dropped/contained loot and inhabitants?

Obviously I'd need to do a good deal of modding to really make a cleared dungeon "inhabitable" with better furnishings, some utilities/services, and employable NPCs, but is it possible even to just reliably store loot in such a place? I know I've seen a fort that I cleared of bandits become inhabited by the Imperial Army after a bit, but I'm not sure about other locations. Anyone have a better idea of this?

I read that you can do this but, your stuff may or may not be there when you come back. The only way for sure is in a home you own.

I was honestly wondering the same thing, but if you're going to using mods to spiff up the place, couldn't you just mod in a chest that doesn't clear itself? I honestly don't know.. haven't played many of the mods in the past games let alone mod up my own dungeon. In for replies!

Dungeons respawn after a set period of time- even if your stuff stays there's no telling who or what will show up to take it.

Hmm... well, that's about what I expected, but still a bummer. Means I'm going to have to wait for the Creation toolset before I can really establish myself. Thanks for the replies.


Actually, that's a good point. When I returned to that fort I mentioned earlier that the Imperials had recliamed, I dropped a few pieces of low-priced loot on the ground as I was leaving. A random Imperial soldier ran up to me and asked if I was going to use the gear I'd dropped on the ground, and I said, "Consider it yours", so he thanked me and took it! I guess it wouldn't be safe to just leave stuff lying around without some modding and guards/locks.